Finally, a new Rei/Mao fic to my name. This is dedicated to Aquarius Galuxy for her birthday, for being such an excellent writer and such a great friend. I hope you'll all enjoy this take on their relationship, as this fic is AU.

-X-

The seventeen-year-old was crouched beside the small feline, a concentrated expression on his face. His dark hair blew in the breeze and his amber eyes, ever watchful, observed the animal's lithe form as it stepped slowly towards his crouched appearance. The kitten's tail twitched cautiously as it got close enough to the boy to curve its neck and sniff his fingers with its small pink nose, the boy's peaceful face broke into a grin as the cat started a low, contented purr and rubbed the side of its face against the boy's palm. The raven-haired man's face broke into a smile and his golden eyes shone in relief as the mammal's eyes slid shut in happiness.

As guarded and aware as the teen seemed to any observer, the only person who was watching him moved silently so as not to arouse suspicion. Cruel ice-blue eyes darted right and left, looking for the next victim of his harsh intent. The boy, so intent on the small creature that seemed to hold more trust in him than any other human had ever cared to display, stroked his hand along the length of the creature's arched spine and didn't notice the predator getting ever closer to him.

The cat's eyes suddenly darted from the dark-haired boy and its tail twitched irritably, the hair on its back bristling violently and backing away. Gold eyes widened in surprise as the feline hissed and spat, and finally darted away into the undergrowth. The teen slowly got to his feet, listening carefully for any sign of unwanted company. The observer flinched as the golden eyes scanned directly over him, but the dark-haired man made no sign that he'd actually laid eyes on him; he had either hidden himself too well in the shadows, or his prey was merely stupid. A cruel smirk brushed across the man's cracked lips. That was the more likely case. After all, he had been rejected, tormented, scathed by the people of their village. He was an outsider, and a jinx upon their fortunes...

A few more quick steps forward. Filthy dark-brown hair plastered to his forehead as he rubbed the sweat from his brow. Finally, he would have vengeance for the village, vengeance for his parents. If he killed this one boy, he knew nothing would return to how it was supposed to be... but this was revenge.

Apparently satisfied with the supposed calm, the younger male turned back around and began to call softly for the cat that had run into the trees, wanting its company.

Now was the time to move. He dashed for the boy, his hand fisted tightly and aiming for the nape of the neck. The teen turned just in time to see the man, who had been following him for some time, but he'd never been able to lay eyes on, and his mere presence and ability to avoid his sharp eyes mocked him. He threw his arms in front of his face as a natural instinct, but it was too little too late as the fist came in contact with his temple. His world spun, and he collapsed to the ground, stunned from the heavy blow to the sensitive area of his head.

Heavy breathing came from the brown-haired man, fuelled by adrenaline. This was the thrill of the chase, what had driven him to go after the easy prey in the first place. He crouched and flung the limp being over his shoulder, and headed back towards the village.

The other villagers would certainly be pleased that he had caught the cause of their bad fortune...

-X-

The toddler was struggling against the girl's firm grip, screaming red-faced, ever against getting the cut along his upper left arm examined. Mao gritted her teeth impatiently and tried to hold the child steady as her older brother, Lee, tried to bandage the boy's flailing limb.

"You're sure you're not being too rough with my baby?" the kid's mother asked anxiously. Mao mentally rolled her eyes and tightened her grip on the child's arm slightly, which was enough to make him let out another yowl of remonstration. His mother moaned apprehensively and wrung the handkerchief she was holding between her hands tightly.

Mao would never understand the depth of this mother's love and concern for her child. She would never feel the love one felt only for that special someone, the one that brought you a love deeper than any other emotion ever expressed by humankind. She and her brother had been the two children of the village chosen to be the next two healers of the village, mainly because they had been orphaned at a young age, by a terrible illness that had swept through the village and killed almost half its population of the time.

It didn't worry her at all. The women of the village had been brought up to be the stereotypical loving housewife, learning to do the cooking, cleaning, sewing, being shown how to prepare for the children that would almost definitely come. She didn't want to live like that, as all she wanted was her freedom. Being a servant of the village that had taken she and her brother in, and caring for its inhabitants like they, in turn, had cared for her, instead of being some pig-headed man's chattel, pleased her more than anything. This generation of the village's men hadn't been of terribly good quality, anyway.

"Mao?" Her brother murmured. The pink-haired woman snapped out of her daydream to see the bandaging had been completed in expert fashion, despite the child's struggling. She still had her tight grip on the young boy's arm, and his mother was glowering at her disapprovingly. Mao's face flushed and she released the kid's limb, and bowed respectfully to his mother.

"I'm sorry that took so long. Your son should be perfectly fine in a day or two with bed rest, as long as he keeps that arm as still as possible to help the healing."

"I'm sure he will," the woman murmured coldly, picking her son up. The boy wiped his nose across the woman's shoulder, causing Mao to flinch in disgust. "I'll suppose you'll be wanting payment for this?"

"No, we're just happy to help," Lee said, grinning at the woman, whose lips twitched upward in return; it was a sign of relief.

"Thank you." And with that, the door of the small room was open, and both mother and child were gone.

Mao sank into a chair exhaustedly, letting out a long sigh. Lee busied himself with clearing away the small amount of implements they had used to treat their last patient; antiseptics, bandages, cotton wool balls, everything you'd find in your average First Aid Kit, basically. It was unlucky for them that next to none of the other villagers had knowledge of viable medicine.

One thing she had noticed about this particular day was the heat; her pink attire was clinging tightly to her like an uncomfortable second skin, and her hair was stuck to the back of her neck by sweat in uncomfortable tendrils. What concerned her, however, was the fact that the marketplace outside seemed to be buzzing with activity. Usually, this many people didn't come out on hot days and waited until dusk to do their shopping, because there was no adequate cover from the sun in their village. Occasionally, there were cheers and shouting of superiority. This wasn't the call of a crowd, enjoying some sort of light-hearted entertainment, or simply going about their business; this seemed like a call of the bloodthirsty.

She wasn't particularly interested in what was happening. Some of the men had probably got into a small misunderstanding that had erupted into a brawl, or perhaps someone was doing something insanely dangerous. Either way, it was going to mean more work for both herself and her brother.

Suddenly, the group outside seemed to calm, and the whole world seemed to pause for a few moments, as if waiting for the next action of the rabble outside. Mao looked towards Lee, and noticed that he was standing perfectly still, concentrating on the sounds that were due to come to their ears at any moment. And then suddenly, it came; the short, high pitched whistle of an object moving fast through the air, the sharp snap of something hitting human flesh, and the pained, agonizing scream of a young man.

Lee's eyes darted towards his sister, who he realized was already staring at him with a look of shock on her face. Someone out there was hurting another human being, and from the sound of it, was being supported by the majority of the villagers.

Quick as a flash, Mao was on her feet and heading towards the corridor that eventuated at the front door of the small building. This door led to the main road of their birthplace, if you could really call it a road at all, and she was positive it was where the sounds were coming from. She heard another sharp cracking sound and a few shouts from the crowd, but the one harrowing difference this time was there was know answering cry from their victim. A few heavy footfalls and pants behind her told her Lee was following her, but this didn't deter her from where she was going at all.

She finally reached the door and she wrenched it open, and was momentarily blinded by the brightness of the sun. When her vision had returned to its former state, it became immediately clear to her that no one had been expecting she or her brother to interfere. The entire group of people, about thirty strong and only about twenty metres away from their door, had turned from watching the show and were now staring at them like intruders.

A man who was commonly known as a troublemaker in the village was at the centre of the throng. He held a leather whip, commonly used for herding animals around the village. However, the figure curled up at his feet was certainly no animal.

It was a boy of about seventeen, give or take a year. He had amazingly long black hair, which would have looked stunning in its normal state, but was currently caked with dirt and his own blood. There were four deep gashes across his back, and judging from the way he was curled up, with golden eyes so unfocused and breathing so shallow, that he was in a state of shock.

Mao knew she had no right to speak out against the other actions of the villagers, so why she chose to push her way through the group and towards the poor teen at the mercy of the people was totally beyond her. Afterwards, all she could think was that it was her job to care for these people, but her own thoughts sounded distant.

"Out of the way, girl," snarled a particularly grave looking man. "This is beyond your control."

"Why are you doing this to him?" Mao replied, trying to stay calm, but feeling the violent quaking of her own limbs. Never in her life had she known her friends, her neighbours, and her kin, to be so barbaric.

"He's brought nothing but bad luck ever since he arrived here thirteen years ago. Once he's gone, our village will once again prosper."

Mao tried to see the logic behind this, and found none. All she could see was that these people were trying to take their own pain and suffering out on a person that obviously had no idea what was wrong. At the moment, she doubted he barely knew where he was. Even worse, maybe he didn't. Suddenly, Lee was beside her and looking at her, understanding exactly how she felt.

"Lee," Mao spoke to her brother in almost a whisper, but he nodded, understanding her intent. He lowered himself into a crouch and took a closer look at the slashes on the victim's back. When he saw the severity of the cuts, he shut his eyes momentarily, and turned to Mao.

"The cuts are deep and dirty. We've got to get him into the surgery to have a look at him, but I doubt we're going to get much help from this lot." Mao nodded her understanding, and Lee continued. "So, you grab him under the arms and try and support his head as much as you can. I'll grab his legs and together we should be able to get him away from these people."

Mao once again nodded, so Lee grabbed him under his knees and Mao grabbed him under the arms as instructed.

The villagers groaned their disappointment that their entertainment was being taken away. Some even yelled insults or curses directed towards Lee and Mao, but the both of them pointedly ignored these comments. Although their house-cum-surgery was only at the maximum, thirty metres away, Mao felt as if it was the largest distance she'd ever had to walk in her life. Lee kicked the door open and when they had managed to ease themselves through, Mao kicked it closed behind her, praying that none of the mob had decided to follow them. They finally reached the room they used to treat their patients, and Lee observed that the cuts on the boy's back had been dripping blood, leaving a trail through their house. He neglected to tell Mao this, as she seemed stressed enough already.

"Are you alright Mao?" Lee asked as they placed their patient facedown on the table, to get a better look at his injuries.

"Yes, I'm fine..." Mao trailed off, and busied herself with finding bandages. "I just can't believe they could be so cruel."

Lee silently agreed and grappled around in a nearby drawer for scissors. When he found them, he cut what little remained of the boy's shirt from his body, to make their treatment easier. Mao returned to his side with an armful of bandages, a bottle of some sort of antiseptic, and an entire bag of cotton swabs. Usually, Lee laughed at his sister's precaution and teased her for bringing too many materials for treatment. But this time, they may need all the things she had brought for the boy.

Mao quickly doused one of the cotton swabs with the antiseptic lotion and began cleaning the dirt from the road away from the deep flesh wounds, delicately moving the dark strands of hair when need be. Lee watched her for a moment and then began to help, thankful that the cuts seemed to been dealt fairly cleanly and that he wouldn't have to cut away the boy's scarred flesh with the scissors.

Occasionally their patient made soft grunting sounds if they tended to a particularly bad wound, but other than that, he seemed totally unaware of where he was. Finally, the cuts were as clean as they were ever going to get, and Lee stepped away, satisfied with the job they had done.

"Now we just need to bandage him up," Mao observed. "Perhaps we should just bandage his entire torso?"

"That seems like the best way to do it," Lee replied, grabbing the masses of bandages Mao had provided him with and grinning, despite the situation.

With a little effort, they managed to push him into a sitting position and Mao wound the bandages around his body many a time, whilst Lee supported him to prevent him from falling. Once the bandaging was done, they slid him onto a small bed that they kept for these sorts of situations and placed him in a corner of the surgery that had been fitted with curtains to give the patients privacy, if they needed it.

And for the rest of that day, Mao and Lee went about their usual business. However, Mao always found herself wondering how their patient was going. She constantly went back to the surgery to check on him, and found he was in the same state almost every time; eyes closed in a peaceful sleep, whilst lying on his stomach.

However, the one time anything was different, was the time that would ultimately change the future...

-X-

Mao tiptoed into the room and looked towards the curtain, only to see some movement coming from behind it. Her heart lightened, knowing that he now seemed to be okay. She carefully walked over to the curtain and pulled it back, and was met with a pair of golden eyes, much like her own, shining from the darkness.

They both jumped backwards, neither of them really expecting the other to be so close. Mao gulped and took another step back from the boy, who was staring at her with an odd expression on his face.

"Err..." Mao started. "You were attacked by the villagers, so my brother and I brought you back here, and bandaged your wounds."

A slight pause in the air, before Mao heard his voice. "Thank you, but I didn't need help," the boy replied.

"They were going to kill you!" Mao exclaimed. No reply came from him, but she could see the expression on his face, and it made her heart clench tightly.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

"Mao," she said softly, and for the first time, she saw a smile grace his lips.

"I'm Rei. So now that we've got that over with..." Rei grabbed the pink-haired girls hands, and she heard her own quiet exclamation of surprise. He stared into her eyes steadily and she felt heat rise to her face in the same way.

"Thank you for taking care of me. It's nice to know there's one decent person in this world."

Mao didn't know how to reply to that, so she said dumbly, "My brother helped me."

"I thank him too, then."

"I'll remember to do that. He should be coming down to check on your wounds soon, anyway."

Mao was still rather aware of Rei's grip on her hands, so she coughed gently. Rei looked at her, not understanding her meaning, and she glanced down at their joined hands, and he chuckled softly; embarrassed.

"Sorry," he said, his hands dropping to his sides.

"That's okay," Mao said automatically. "I suppose I should leave you be now, so you're ready for when my brother comes to check on you."

Rei nodded and slowly got back into the bed, hissing gently as pressure was put on his cuts. Mao watched him until he got comfortable, and he smiled at her once again.

"Thank you for this."

"It's no problem, really!" Mao said, hoping the dark was adequately covering her flushed cheeks. She wasn't used to this sort of attention from any man.

She turned on her heel to leave the room, unaware that Rei's eyes were still on her until she had completely disappeared around the door frame.

-X-

And that was chapter one! Whew, Mao certainly got ruffled about Rei at the end. Hopefully she'll warm up to him a bit more, right? Anywho, as I said, this was a present for Aquarius Galuxy's birthday, so happy belated birthday!

Like it? Didn't like it? Review either way, but mindless flames shall be made an object of ridicule amongst my friends and me.